


Blossoming in Piracy

by Prinzenhasserin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Post Original Trilogy, Space Florist AU, post-Solo, smugglers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-05 22:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15873078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prinzenhasserin/pseuds/Prinzenhasserin
Summary: Leia tries a different way of funding her resistance. This involves getting closer to the intriguing flower delivery woman she manages to meet at the senate hangar.





	Blossoming in Piracy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saiditallbefore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiditallbefore/gifts).



Leia slammed the revolving door so hard behind her that it would have shattered under any other circumstances. As it was, it spun like a fidget spinner and would block traffic out of the main New Senate Building for the next half hour at least.

Leia didn't know why she had expected anything else: The Detente between First Order and New Republic was profitable—or in the words of Chancellor Mothma, "You aren't trying to stir up unnecessary conflict with the Empire, are you, Senator Organa?"—disregarding the ability of the military to be a peace-keeping armada, especially for the upswing in recent piracy and weapon smuggling. Of course, whenever she mentioned the statistics, inevitably, a senator would point out her own profits from the smuggling. Marrying Han might have been a political mistake, but she really couldn't help herself. 

Leia marched down the Plaza, and into the senate hangar that housed her personal shuttle. She was aware that this might be a bit rash, but honestly, right now, the only reason she hadn't lobbed of heads was that she did not want to become the next emperor (even though she would be good at it, better than Mothma, at least) In a different universe, she wouldn't have run into Amilyn Holdo with her hands full of exquisite Hosnian Orchids, and would have left to rebuild what was left of the military wing of the rebellion for her own purposes.

In this universe, Amilyn Holdo almost dropped her flowers, and Leia helped her hold up the precious stems—Hosnian Orchids were delicate to grow and easy to wilt, and the higher echelons of society went wild for their silken texture and pleasing smell (and it helped that they were said to be mildly aphrodisiacal and looked like a particularly wellformed female genitalia).

"Sorry, wasn't looking where I was going," Leia excused herself. "Please tell me these aren't for the Banquet with the Empire's representative. Those cost more than my monthly staff budget! And Mothma has the temerity to tell me there's not enough money for a new cruiser!"

"I would hate to tell you lies," Amilyn grimaced. "They were delivered with a modified shuttle-starfighter for the VCX-100 and the ship manifest says it belongs to the Corellians, but Greer Sonnel went to interrogate the pilots and they weren't having it."

"Smugglers?" Leia asked, and only then realised that a modified VCX-100 was really a lot of overkill for a bundle of flowers. "Wait, did you say a VCX-100? Those have some damn fast auxiliary ships. Why would they need a ship that fast for flower delivery?"

"Have you looked at the average blooming period for these babies?" Amilyn asked her with raised brows. "They're expensive for a reason—the only way to get them is by hyperspeed space travel. There's a few greenhouses on Hosnia that recreate the environment, of course, but sometimes the cheapest way to get them is to import them. I hear the flower trade is rough."

Leia snorted. "Oh yeah? Compared to what?"

"Compared to smuggling coaxium it's a breeze, compared to anything else an incredible hassle," a well-dressed lady with elegant curls told her. "Not that I would know about smuggling coaxium." She punctuated her words with a lovely smile, as if even the westhills butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. 

Leia didn't believe a word out of her mouth. She pursued her lips, and eyed her up more closely. "And who are you to have such decisive opinions on the flower trade?" she asked.

"I'm in the flower trade," she said. "My name is Qi'ra."

None of that sounded sincere, and yet Leia could feel that she was telling the fundamental truth. It took a certain kind of person to manage a lie hidden within the truth, and she was very much reminded of Han. Leia narrowed her eyes at the woman in front of her. Being reminded of Han never went particularly well for the person who resembled him, since Han was pretty singular in his sensibilities. He was, however, the epitome of a smuggler.

"Princess—" Greer Sonnel said from behind. She had obviously seen Leia's message, as she was dressed ready to pilot. She interrupted herself as soon as she saw Qi'ra— her hand automatically moving to her belt. "Oh," she said. "It's you."

Leia looked towards her assistant and then back at Qi'ra, who still looked sleek, dangerous, very attractive. "Have you met before?" she asked.

"Your aide was admiring my ship," Qi'ra said. "It's Corellian-made. If I remember correctly, you have some experience with Corellians, Senator Organa?"

"Especially their ships," Leia answered pleasantly, and tried not to think of a specific Corellian. "The Corellians know how to get the most out of their engines."

"It does look like yours could give mine a run for its money," Qi'ra said. "If you're the owner of that lovely transport vessel. It looks heavily modified—not many engineers who know how to do that to a ship."

"Oh, it's just a hobby of my husband, I'm sure it can't hold a handle to yours. It is only a transport class, after all." Leia knew how to play this game well, even though Mothma and the collective senate seemed to have taken leave of all their senses to call <i>her</i> a warmonger. Greer looked like she wanted to protest the honour of her vessel, but didn't do anything to contradict her.

"So is mine," Qi'ra smiled. It was sharklike in its intensity, and seemed to mean the opposite. This woman wasn't playing. "The starship it served must have gotten lost long ago—it's purely transport now."

Leia narrowed her eyes again, but she'd been neatly outmaneuvred, even though this Qi'ra woman might not know how much her reputation as a paranoid warmonger had spread. If she complained about a smuggler gaining entry to the senate hangar for flower delivery—well, that would just push the old guard over the edge, wouldn't it?

It raised a good point, however. Leia would need funding for any paramilitary group she was going to fund in spite of the senate downsizing again. Leia would need a lot of funding, and then still wouldn't be able to hide her fleet (or her paramilitary force) from the eyes of the senate. "I heard Hosnian Orchids are out of season," she said out loud. "You must have come a very long way."

Leia couldn't see her falter, but something told her she was taken aback by the question. "The Outhouses are just outside of the system," Qi'ra explained. "They thrive in space air."

"Huh," Leia said. "I didn't know that." And quietly, by herself, she pondered if it was possible to create a paramilitary unit under the thin veneer of flower smuggling, which the woman in front of her was clearly doing. A VCX-100 for a flower delivery? Right. And Leia was a bantha farmer on Tattoine. "They're very pretty," she added, to bring the conversation back to its roots—and maybe hide her purposes behind polite conversation. "How much for a bouquet? Do you happen to have a catalogue with you?"

"But of course, Princess," Qi'ra said, and waved over one of her companions.

"Senator, actually," Leia corrected her sharply. "Alderaan doesn't exist anymore, so the courtesy title shouldn't either."

Qi'ra cast a look at Greer behind her, and said swiftly, with the grace of someone in customer service, "Apologies for the misstep, Senator Organa. We've heard of the destruction of your homworld. A terrible tragedy."

"I'm looking to acquire some flowers for the remembrance day," Leia said.

One of Qi'ra's companions handed her a flimsy, and she presented it to Leia. The prices for a fresh bouquet were astronomical, and even those for dried arrangements were steep—if the profit margin was less than 5% Leia could fund an entire fleet on just the profit alone—and conveniently explain away the fast ships as courier investment. Han would love it.

Leia smiled at the extraordinary woman in front of her. "This is lovely, thank you." Leia’s original purpose now entirely derailed, she relaxed. The woman in front of her was clearly angling for something—and if it was just business for her flower delivery, then Leia might learn a few details.

Amilyn, in the background, was making gestures encouraging her to desist. It was as if she didn’t know Leia, because that made the woman in front of her even more interesting.

“The senate hangar, no matter how lovely, isn’t really the place to discuss business,” Leia said. “I do have a lovely suite not far from here, where we could talk in a more comfortable establishment. If you’re not too keen to go through the rigorous screening process involved, I will understand, of course.“

The smile of the woman in case, Qi‘ra, as she should get used to saying, widened. “An invitation to your home would be lovely,” she said.

The matter decided, Leia turned briskly around and ignored her entourage. When Amilyn took her aside to murmur, “Are you sure—“

Leia waved her off. There was nothing quite like mixing business with pleasure and Qi’ra came in the most delightful of packages. She was, frankly, beautiful, and the suspected background of smuggling was very attractive. If someone had developed her type exactly, Qi’ra would be very high on the list of contenders. As long as she was willing, how was Leia expected to pass her up? Especially if she managed to pass by the security measures around the senate housing uncontested.

Leia said nothing of this to Qi’ra. Instead, she kept her talking about how often she had visited the Hosnian System (not often) and where she was born (Corellia, which explained the ship type).

Soon enough, the two of them arrived at the security station. The officer on duty during the day was rather inconvenienced that Leia hadn’t announced her guest earlier for a more thorough threat assessment, but Leia steamrolled over their complaints as usual. She wanted those bright red lips on hers, the deft fingers in her pussy, and she wanted her every body part to be compared to flowers. The security check stood quite in the way of that.

Qi’ra smiled at her indulgently, kept silent in the face of Leia’s demands and was handsy only in the boundaries of propriety.

Finally, the officer waved them off, and Leia could escape to privacy, where she served wine, listened to Qi’ra’s extraordinary tales of the flower trade—her hunt for fast ships, interesting specimen, flowers, and inched closer and closer to her seat on the sofa. From th way Qi’ra sipped her wine, crossed her legs, twirled her locks around her fingers, Leia knew she was receptive to her advances.

 

 

Leia woke up to an empty bed, and someone bursting into her rooms not even trying to be quiet.

“Princess!” Greer called out, sounding frazzled. “Are you alright?”

Leia groaned, and pulled up her sheet so she would flash her assistant at too-early in the morning. “It was just a one night stand and we used protection, I am perfectly fine, even though my assistant thinks I am an infant,” she complained.

“No, Princess, look,” Greer said, and pushed a flimsy under her nose. “The Crimson Dawn infiltrated the senate buildings.”

Leia grabbed the flimsy because Greer was shaking and spread out the surveillance photo of the Crimson Dawn. A woman’s face looked at her. It was not a very similar likeness of the face, but something about the way she held herself (perhaps even Luke’s blasted force) made her very certain that this was the same woman who had slept in her bed last night.

“Oh no,” Leia said. “How terrible.” Leia was still attracted to her, she was quite certain that someone had to have arranged this, and there was quite a bit more money in flower smuggling than she would have expected, and quite a bit more than Qi’ra hadn’t told her yesterday. A different angle of attack, one that would take from the wealthy and fund the resistance against the first order—and it would take business from Qi’ra of the Crimson Dawn. Hopefully, it would upset her more than this discovery upset Leia.

She would be ready to destroy Qi’ra on her turf, and if she wasn’t certain if she meant with orgasms, or a fleet, well, then, she’d have plenty of time to make sure which was more appropriate.


End file.
